What Works Ireland Evidence Hub

• Level 4 recognises programmes with evidence of a long-term positive impact through multiple rigorous evaluations. At least one of these studies must have evidence of improving a child outcome lasting a year or longer.
• Level 3 recognises programmes with evidence of a short-term positive impact from at least one rigorous evaluation – that is, where a judgment about causality can be made.
• Level 2 recognises programmes with preliminary evidence of improving a child outcome, but where an assumption of causal impact cannot be drawn.
• NL2 – ‘not level 2’ – distinguishes programmes whose most robust evaluation evidence does not meet the level 2 threshold for a child outcome.
• NE — ‘found not to be effective in at least one rigorously conducted study’ — is reserved for programmes where a rigorous programme evaluation (equivalent to a level 3) has found no evidence of improving one of our child outcomes or providing significant benefits to other participants. This rating should not be interpreted to mean that the programme will never work, but it does suggest that the programme will need to adapt and improve its model, learning from the evaluation.

For further information on evidence standards see:

• Cost Rating 1 means a programme is delivered at an estimated unit cost of less than €125.
• Cost Rating 2 indicates a medium-low cost, with an estimated unit cost of €125-599.
• Cost Rating 3 indicates a medium cost, with an estimated unit cost of €600-1199.
• Cost Rating 4 indicates a medium-high cost, with an estimated unit cost of €1200-2375.
• Cost Rating 5 indicates a high cost, with an estimated unit cost of more than €2375.

Note: These figure are based on an analysis of UK costs and a conversion rate of 1.19 at time of publication (2023).

Programmes can be filtered to show programmes working to the 5 National Outcomes for Children and Young People. These outcomes were developed under Better Outcome, Brighter Futures – Ireland’s national policy framework for children and young people which ran from 2014-2020.